FAT. The word alone is enough to send most people running for the hills. But contrary to popular belief, fat is actually good for you. It's as important to the human body as proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals.
In fact, experts recommend that 20-35 per cent of our diet should consist of fat. Not convinced? Read on...
The reasoning behind the idea that
eating fat makes you fat was that because fat contains nine calories
per gram compared to proteins and carbohydrates which only have four calories
per gram, the fat you eat would be stored as fat in your body and
you'd put on weight.
However, research has proved that
reducing fat intake has little impact on weight loss, and high fat diets
have consistently been shown to be more effective at helping you lose
weight compared to low fat, high carb diets.
This
is because it's not fat which
makes you fat. It's sugar that makes you fat. Sugar is the leading
cause of obesity in our diets. Every time you eat, insulin (the
hormone that regulates metabolism and energy use) is released into
your bloodstream.
Excess glucose from sugar is dangerous so insulin
levels rise rapidly to transport the glucose out of the bloodstream
and into the cells of the body. Eating a lot of sugar chronically
raises blood insulin levels, and when this happens most of the energy
in the bloodstream is deposited and stored in the fat cells just to
get rid of it.
Having high insulin levels in the blood all the time also
leads to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Sugar also causes resistance to the
hormone leptin which is responsible for informing the brain when the
fat cells are full, so we stop being hungry and eat less. When
this resistance occurs, the brain thinks that the body is starving
and that you need to eat more and hold on to the fat you already
have.
On top of all that, sugar is addictive so the more you consume,
the more you'll crave. It's a vicious cycle which is unfortunately
hard to break.
Fat is good for you
When you eat fat, however, it's digested much more slowly so the energy is released into your system slower and doesn't cause a sharp rise in insulin, so you'll have consistent energy levels and feel full for longer.
The best fats to eat are unsaturated
fats, which can be found in foods such as avocados, nuts, extra
virgin olive oil and oily fish such as salmon and mackerel. These help
to produce neurotransmitters in the brain, which make us feel and
perform at our best.
These fats also reduce the stickiness of blood
and control cholesterol and body fat levels, which in turn improves
immune function and metabolism. Therefore, as opposed to making us
fat, they can actually promote weight loss.
Other health benefits of eating
unsaturated fats include keeping your joints flexible, your bones
strong and lowering the risk of inflammatory conditions such as
arthritis, Alzheimer's and psoriasis.
They can even help control
glucose levels in diabetics, tackle menstrual problems and protect
against certain cancers. So you definitely shouldn't cut them from
your diet.
Fat is also good for your skin and
has anti-ageing effects. It plumps up skin cells and gives you
glowing, radiant skin. It also wards off wrinkles and fine lines so
you'll look younger too. Who doesn't want that?
Meat and dairy can still be enjoyed
Even saturated fat shouldn't be
avoided. Only recently have we found out that it isn't as bad for you
as previously thought. Sat fat has been unfairly blamed for high
cholesterol and coronary heart disease for almost sixty years now.
This thinking is based on a highly flawed study by scientist Ancel
Keys in the 1950s, called the Seven Countries Study. This
study revealed that countries where people consumed the most amount
of fat had the highest levels of heart disease.
However, to support his theory, Keys
cherry-picked countries which had a high level of saturated fat
consumption and high levels of heart disease. He intentionally ignored
countries where people ate a lot of fat but had low levels of heart
disease, such as France and Norway, and countries whose people didn't
eat much fat but had high levels of heart disease, like Chile.
He
also didn't take into account other lifestyle elements such as
pollution and smoking, and for some reason only studied men.
Even so, Keys's study gained massive
media and government attention and has shaped our views of fat for
over half a century. Not long after the results of this study were
published we had an obesity epidemic, followed by the diabetes
epidemic.
This is because people were cutting down on fat and eating
foods full of sugar instead...the real culprit when it comes
to both weight gain and heart disease.
No need to fear the coconut anymore
Foods that have been stripped of all
their natural fat do not taste good. This is why you'll find that
low-fat products are full of sugar and/or artificial sweetener.
We've
already discussed the potential dangers of sugar, and sweeteners like
aspartame are not a better choice. They are in fact worse than
sugar and can cause everything from headaches and nausea to brain
tumours and dementia. The food industry is literally replacing
natural, beneficial fats with harmful substances and chemicals, and
promoting them as a healthier option!
I would like to note here that
trans-unsaturated fatty acids, more commonly known as trans fats, are
nasty and unnatural and are definitely to be avoided. They are
man-made and uncommon in nature. They are produced industrially (yes,
another product of the food industry, like aspartame) for use in many
processed and snack foods and are associated with heart disease and
high levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol.
You can avoid trans fats by
cutting out processed foods and only eating pure, whole produce.
Always read labels, too – if something is 'hydrogenated' or
'partially hydrogenated', it contains trans fats. This is the only
type of fat you should try to avoid completely.
Fat has been unfairly demonised by
both the media and the food industry. However, it really shouldn't be
feared. Fat doesn't make you fat and is actually really good for you.
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